STS-102 Day 4 Highlights

STS-102 Mission Specialists Susan Helms and Jim Voss donned space
suits and stepped outside Discovery late last night to prepare one of
the International Space Station’s berthing ports for the Leonardo
transfer module.

The pair, destined to become members of the Expedition Two crew
aboard the station later in the mission, began the 17th station
assembly space walk at 11:12 p.m. CST Saturday. Inside Discovery, Paul
Richards choreographed their activities and served as liaison with
Mission Control.

The space walkers were delayed early in their excursion when a
portable foot restraint attachment device became untethered, and Voss
had to retrieve a spare from its storage location on the outside of
the station’s Unity module.

Helms and Voss successfully prepared Pressurized Mating Adapter-3
for repositioning from Unity’s Earth-facing berth to its port-side
berth to make room for Leonardo, the Italian Space Agency-built
Multipurpose Logistics Module. They disconnected eight cables and
removed an Early Communications System antenna from the left-side
Common Berthing Mechanism so that shuttle robotic arm operator Andy
Thomas could put the mating adapter in its place, freeing up the
Earth-facing berthing port for Leonardo.

The space walkers also removed a Lab Cradle Assembly from the cargo
bay and installed it on the side of the Destiny laboratory module,
where it will form the base for station robotic arm to be launched on
STS-100 in mid-April. Because of the early delay, they were instructed
to defer power and data cable connections for the cradle until
Monday’s scheduled space walk by Richards and Thomas. Voss and
Helms also installed a cable tray to Destiny for later use by the
station’s robot arm.

The pair reentered Discovery’s airlock early Sunday and waited
for Thomas to maneuver the docking port to its new location, but
remained at the ready to assist if needed. After Commander Jim
Wetherbee drove the Common Berthing Mechanism latches home and secured
the docking port at 7:43 a.m., the airlock was repressurized, ending
the space walk at 8:08 a.m. Sunday after 8 hours 56 minutes, making
it the longest space walk in Shuttle history. The space walk brings
the total exterior construction time on the station to 117 hours 39
minutes over the course of 17 space walks, and the total EVA time in
Shuttle program history to 386 hours, 15 minutes over 61 separate
space walks.

Meanwhile aboard the station, Expedition Two Commander Yury Usachev
began a handover of duties from Expedition One Commander Bill
Shepherd, with Flight Engineer Sergei Krikalev also still on
board. The hatches between Discovery and the International Space
Station are to be reopened shortly after 8 p.m. Sunday, as the crew
begins the fifth day of the mission.

Both crews are scheduled to begin an eight-hour sleep period at 9:42
a.m. central time, awakening at 5:42 p.m. Discovery and the station
are in excellent condition in an orbit of about 235 statute miles. The
next mission control center status report will be issued Sunday
evening.

The crews of Discovery and the International Space Station will join
forces again today as hatches between the spacecraft are reopened, a
change of shift aboard the science outpost continues, and a cargo
carrier is attached to the complex.

Discovery’s crew was awakened today by the song “Blast Off”
from the animated feature Scooby Doo and the Alien Invaders, played
for astronautPaul Richards as a selection from his children. The
shuttle and station crews plan to reopen hatches between the two
spacecraft at about 8:12 p.m. today. They will remain open for about
eight hours before they again must be closed in preparation for a
second space walk Monday night.

Just after the hatches open this evening, the crew exchange will
continue with Expedition Two Flight Engineer Jim Voss taking up
residence aboard the station and Expedition One Flight Engineer Sergei
Krikalev moving to Discovery. With Expedition Two Commander Yury
Usachev already aboard the complex since Saturday, only one more
crewmember switch remains to complete the station’s change of
watch. Expedition One Commander Bill Shepherd will trade places with
Expedition Two Flight Engineer Susan Helms Tuesday night.

As the crews work together tonight, moving gear inside the shuttle
and station, Astronaut Andy Thomas will use Discovery’s robotic arm
to remove the Italian Space Agency-built Leonardo Multi-Purpose
Logistics Module from the shuttle’s cargo bay and attach it to the
station’s Unity module. Leonardo carries more than 5 tons of
equipment and experiments that will be unloaded during the next few
days before it is again detached from the station and stowed aboard
Discovery to return to Earth.

Tonight’s plan calls for Thomas to begin lifting Leonardo from
Discovery’s cargo bay at 9:12 p.m. He will maneuver it into place
and latch it to the station at about 10:57 p.m. The station crew plans
to enter the cargo module at about 5:42 a.m. Monday to begin the
unloading.

Discovery and the International Space Station remain in excellent
condition in an orbit with a high point of 236 statute miles and a low
point of 229 statute miles. The next Mission Control Center status
report will be issued Monday morning.